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| Negro History Yesterday and Today |
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by Onajídé Shabaka - 18 Apr., 2007
Negro History Yesterday and Today by Onajídé Shabaka Artist Dawolu Jabari Anderson finds Carter J. Woodson's Negro Week, now Black History Month, as inspiration for his current series at Ingalls & Associates. Anderson explains that the title Negro Week has an immediate reference to 'Negro History Week' as founded by scholar and historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926 which later became known as Black History Month. Playing on words, Negro Week also carries a more subtle connotation meaning black weakness, a weakness in the areas of actual power as opposed to the false representations of power often suggested in the commodified and co-opted imagery associated with Black History month, the gallery noted. For Negro Week, Dawolu Jabari Anderson has developed a series of 68"x46" drawings on acrylic and paper to present a duality in meanings. Anderson explains that the title Negro Week has an immediate reference to 'Negro History Week' as founded by scholar and historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926 which later became known as Black History Month. "Playing on words, Negro Week," claims Anderson, "also carries a more subtle connotation meaning black weakness. A weakness in the areas of actual power as opposed to the false representations of power often suggested in the commodified and co-opted imagery associated with Black History month."
The large drawings in acrylic on multilayered paper are with images he recalls from his childhood. The antiquing of the paper into large sheets, including crinkles and folds, has a look of old posters but, the hand applied images and text are obviously meticulously applied. The opportunity to meet the artist, especially being from out of town, The the south gallery was the work of Lorenzo De Los Angeles whose Victorian pastel still lifes drawings are in muted colors and intricately rendered. De Los Angeles pilfers from botanical illustrations, images from his father's medical and pharmacological books that he looked through as a child, photography and cinema to construct elaborate narratives for the viewer to excavate, says the gallery statement. This exhibition comes down in May so, there is still the opportunity to see it.
Ingalls & Associates
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